By Alena Mentink

This week truly has felt as if spring has come. Part of the reason for this is due to the warm weather. Another reason is because we have been planting seeds. At the end of last week we repotted all the house plants that we ordered. We planted a Calamondin orange, tangerine, banana, lime, lemon, a hardy kiwi that will eventually be planted outside, two muscadine grapes, and a stevia. We ended up planting them in the camper at our little kitchen/dining room table. By the time that we had finished planting everything, dirt surrounded the table and the plants had spread onto the serving-cart. Thankfully the babies were both asleep; otherwise we would have had an even worse mess on our hands. We needed to get the plants out of the camper and into the house if we planned on eating supper, but before we could move the plants we needed some trays to catch the excess water.  After brain-storming for a couple of minutes, Mom and I decided to go “dumpster-diving”, or in plain English, search for junk that would suit our purpose. Our expedition fulfilled its duty, though it turned out to be not quite what we intended. We found one metal tray that we prefer not to think about what it was used for. After an unsuccessful search for another tray or container, Mom suggested that we use one of our new sleds. After all, it would hold several plants and catch the extra water. I was a bit skeptical, but after Mom had scrubbed at both tray and sled until they shone, I couldn’t really think of a reason why you shouldn’t use a sled to store plants in. The sled is rather handy, so I decided to just accept it.

Over the weekend we planted more than one-hundred apple trees. Dad used his chain saw to cut down several existing trees and some of the dead or overgrown branches along the shelter belt. Mom planted raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, onions, and several fruit and nut trees. Mom has discovered several raspberry plants that we thought were dead, but they were just waiting for the rain. This will be their second year in the garden, so they should produce even better than last year. We are very excited for when all of our plants and trees will begin to produce. Although the garden has taken extra input this year, we know that it will pay itself off in the long-run.

What really has made it feel like spring this week is the fact that several animals have been born. The sheep have been lambing one after another for a couple of weeks. One of the sheep had triplets, so Mom and Dad pulled off one of the lambs to keep the mama from becoming too worn out. Mom attempted to make a different sheep accept him, along with its own lamb, but the sheep stubbornly refused. Mom started going into the stall several times a day and holding her against the wall so that the extra lamb could nurse. The boys named the resisting sheep Stomper because whenever she saw Mom coming, she would stomp her foot on the ground. After a week the mom accepted the new lamb and Dad turned him and his new family out to pasture. The lamb found its true mother and now nurses from several sheep. One of the lambs was born in the barnyard and was either born with weak back legs or was injured. Mom and Dad told Kailey that if she would feed him and bring him to his mama to help him nurse, she could have him. Kailey considered the offer all afternoon. Aiden told her that he would be willing to share in the ownership of it or raise it himself if she didn’t want to take on another chore. Kailey debated on it all night before deciding that she would do a partnership with Aiden. Kailey fed him milk with a syringe for a couple of days and Aiden led him to his mother to nurse. After the first few days, the lamb began to put a little bit of weight on his back legs. He began to put more and more pressure on his legs as the days passed and even began to try running. The lamb is now doing well and is out on the pasture. One can hardly tell that he had bad legs a couple of weeks ago! Candice (our cow) had a calf. She finally had a heifer. All of our cows have been bulls, so we are fairly excited. The only disappointment is that in the past, Dad put a lot of effort into getting Candice bred to a pure Jersey bull. Of course, Candice always had bulls. This time Dad simply put her in with one of Grandpa’s Red Angus bulls and she had a heifer. So now that we finally have our girl, she isn’t the breed we had hoped for. If she turns out to be a smaller cow, which does well on pasture, and she’s healthy we may keep her.

On Friday Kailey, Dad, the boys, and Annika travelled to Exeter to buy a couple of goats. The mission of the trip was for Kailey to buy a Nubian buck to breed with her goats. Since the owner of the buck was also selling a Lamancha doe, Mom and Dad decided that they would buy her as long as she looked healthy. Mom looked up the breed on the internet and found that the Lamancha is a hardy goat that can endure large amounts of hardship and still produce milk. Its milk is also high in butter-fat. Mom and Dad decided that it may be a good breed to introduce to our farm. Dad and Kailey ended up buying both of the goats, but everyone was startled by how big the buck was. Kailey’s goats aren’t very big, so she may not be able to breed him to her goats. We also found out that he is an escape artist. Dad and Kailey put him in with the bulls, which is a very secure pen. He fought with every bull and ram and won almost every time. The goats and sheep with lambs were grazing in the pasture next to him. Kailey and I were with the other goats almost all afternoon, but he waited patiently for the right time to join his friends. About thirty minutes later, we sat down for supper and Aiden asked, “Why did you put the buck out in the pasture with the others?” All of us stared at him and immediately told him that it was impossible and that his eyes were playing tricks on him. Aiden insisted that he had seen the buck in the pasture, so Dad and the other kids ran to the pen to see for themselves. They soon came back entirely perplexed and told mom and me that the buck was in the pasture. After a thorough inspection of the fence, Dad decided that since there weren’t any holes for the buck to slip through, he must have jumped the fence. Dad decided to leave him in the pasture because if he had jumped the fence in the bull’s pen, no fence on our farm was going to constrain him. However, he has behaved himself so far and seems content to stay where he is for now.